Integrated circuits such as microprocessors (e.g., central processing units (CPUs)) and systems on a chip (SOCs) often contain cryptography circuits and/or other circuits that process secret information. Malicious attacks against such cryptographic circuits and/or other circuits are commonplace. Examples of common hardware attacks that are performed include physical and laser voltage probing, infrared ray emission (IREM), focused ion beam edits (FIB), and laser assisted device alteration (LADA).
Circuit design solutions may exist against physical attacks on hardware that stores secret values (e.g., keys that are stored in the integrated circuits.) However, in conventional integrated circuits these secret values may become vulnerable when they are in use (e.g., when a secret value is in a register and operated on by digital logic).